In the field of oil well servicing, the practice of fracturing a well is a standard procedure. During this fracturing procedure, large amounts of abrasive fluid-solids mixtures are pumped down the well by high pressure pumps. The frac head is attached to the well head or other fixture located on the well head and fluid lines from the high pressure pumps are attached to the frac head. The frac head acts as a collector for all the fluid lines and directs the fluid from the fluid lines through the well head or well head fixtures and down the well bore. The interior bore of the frac head is subjected to extreme erosion from the abrasive materials mixed with the fluid being pumped. When erosion of the frac head wall material, usually steel, reaches a certain point, the frac head will no longer have the strength required to contain the pressure of the materials being pumped through it and it must be taken out of service and repaired if possible. The repairs, generally by welding, can be difficult and sometimes impossible due to metallurgical problems with welding and the frac head must be scrapped.
The design of frac heads ranges from small dual inlet frac heads in the 1960s to multi inlet frac heads of the present day. The erosion problem has been addressed by means of fabricating the frac head from thick walled steel, using high strength construction materials, weld-coating the inside of the frac head with erosion resisting material, coating the inside with ceramic materials and altering the geometry of the inlets to the frac head. Due to restrictions on the size of the frac head and restrictions on the materials of fabrication, the aforementioned designs have met with minimal success.